Al Jazeera has “strongly” rejected “baseless” Israeli allegations that the network’s correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul, who was killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza, was a Hamas operative.

The Doha-based network said on Thursday that the accusation, which Israel presented without proof, is an attempt to justify the “deliberate killing” of al-Ghoul and his companion cameraman, Rami al-Rifi.

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The two journalists were killed in a direct Israeli air raid on their vehicle in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza on Wednesday.

Al Jazeera Media Network said the accusation against al-Ghoul “highlights Israel’s long history of fabrications and false evidence used to cover up its heinous crimes”, underscoring that the country has barred international journalists from entering Gaza.

“Furthermore, the Israeli occupation forces had previously abducted Ismail on March 18, 2024, during their raid on al-Shifa Hospital, detaining him for a period of time before his release, which debunks and refutes their false claim of his affiliation with any organisation,” the network added.

The slain correspondent said at that time that Israeli forces detained him with other journalists and forced them to lie on their stomachs as they were blindfolded and had their hands tied for several hours.

“Ismail joined Al Jazeera in November 2023, dedicating all his time and effort to covering the war on Gaza, documenting the Israeli forces’ atrocities in Gaza City and reporting the untold suffering of Palestinians in Gaza,” Al Jazeera Media Network said on Thursday.

“Al Jazeera Media Network calls for an independent international investigation into the brutal and heinous crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces against its journalists and staff since the beginning of the war on Gaza.”

In its statement, the Israeli army appeared to confirm that it deliberately targeted al-Ghoul, boasting that the journalist has been “eliminated”.

“As part of his role in the military wing, al-Ghoul instructed other operatives on how to record operations and was actively involved in recording and publicizing attacks against [Israeli] troops,” the Israeli military said.

“His activities in the field were a vital part of Hamas’s military activity.”

Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza, Israel has alleged – mostly without evidence – that its attacks on Palestinians are part of the campaign against Hamas.

The Israeli military has bombed schools, hospitals and displaced people’s camps, claiming that it was targeting Hamas fighters. Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza has killed at least 39,480 Palestinians and reduced large parts of the besieged territory to rubble.

When Israel killed Hamza Dahdouh, the eldest son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief and a journalist himself, in January, it also accused him of being part of Hamas – an allegation rejected by the network and press freedom groups.

Hamza Dahdouh was killed alongside fellow journalist Mustafa Thuraya.

Israel had provided contradicting justifications for that attack. Initially, it claimed that it struck Dahdouh and Thuraya for using a camera drone, assuming that they posed a threat to Israeli forces. Dahdouh and Thuraya wore vests clearly identifying them as press.

Again in February, Israel claimed without evidence that Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail Abu Omar was a Hamas operative after targeting him with an attack that severely injured him.

At that time Al Jazeera rejected and condemned the allegation, recalling Israel’s long history of attacking the network and its journalists.

Israeli forces had killed the Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank in 2022 and the network’s cameraman Samer Abudaqa in Gaza in December 2023.

Israel, which banned Al Jazeera in the country earlier this year, had also bombed a tower housing the network’s offices in Gaza in 2021.

Israel has killed 165 journalists in Gaza since the beginning of the war, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders have condemned the killing of al-Ghoul and al-Rifi.

“Journalists are civilians and should never be targeted. Israel must explain why two more Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in what appears to be a direct strike,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement on Wednesday.